Once upon a time, the Beatles and Rolling Stones were considered really radical band names. Seriously.

They were benign tributes to benighted influences - Buddy Holly's Crickets and a song by bluesman Muddy Waters ("Rollin' Stone").

Now, young musicians can search the Internet (band namemaker.com) to find something original - though that's increasingly difficult - or totally bizarre.

Then there's Dying Fetus.

"They were going for the most despicable, shocking thing they could think of," said Trey Williams, who slams the drums in the "death-metal" trio from Upper Marlboro, Md. "They wanted people to remember, 'Wow, that's a hell of a band.' The name did a pretty good job of shocking people."

Though that's a bit more difficult these days, the group is embarked on a national tour - the Blood of Power - with a who's-that? of provocative names indicative of their hyper-aggressive musical assault.

San Diego's Cattle Decapitation tops that roster. A 16-year-old "death-grind" band, its five members are - of course - vegetarians.

"That's kind of their niche," Williams said.

Dying Fetus and Cattle Decapitation collaborate when the tour stops at Stockton's Plea for Peace Center on Monday. Cerebral Bore, from Glasgow, Scotland, is part of the tour, too, along with Forever Obscured and Cursed.

The names reflect pent-up aggression being vented by the band members and their aggro followers.

"Our name is our identity," said Williams, calling from a tour stop in Dallas, Texas. "It's not meant to be easily swallowed. It's an acquired taste. We are here to shock."

That's what founding member John Gallagher, a singer, songwriter and guitarist, has been doing since 1991. He, singer-bassist Sean Beasley and Williams continue to crank out their politically charged music on "Reign Supreme," the band's seventh album that was released this year.

"It's not what we do on stage," said Williams, 33, who's been in the group's frequently shifting lineup for five years. "We're not, like, a crazy band that does a lot of stage antics. We're pretty much sort of like a machine."

It's the audience members who get all antic.

"Sometimes, the second we start, they're right up on stage," Williams said. "Knocking on the stage. We have to get behind them. We hope we get a response which is an intense one with them moshing, throwing each other around and going crazy."

This was happening last weekend in "red" America: San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas. It's a common occurrence, though.

"We find it all over the world," Williams said. "During our (Blood of Power Tour show) in Germany, we had to stop midway through it so a guy could get taken out on a stretcher. It happens all over. Even in Thailand and other places we get that reaction."

Death-metal doesn't imply morbidity or mortality.

"It's mainly an aggressive form of excitement," Williams said. "Shows like this can get violent. Our scene is a little more friendly to fans. On the fan-to-fan level. Fights break out. You know, 'You stepped on my foot ... uhhhh.' Our fans get pretty excited. They want to throw down. But if someone falls down they get picked up."

Dying Fetus, which has had 14 members since 1991, lifted up a young Williams.

Born in Vicenza, Italy, he moved frequently with his U.S. military family but spent his pre-teen and young-adulthood years in Montgomery County, Md., adjacent to Washington, D.C.

A "self-taught drummer," he was inspired by Dying Fetus' Kevin Talley and the band's basic assault - plus a "lot of others. Too many to mention. It was a mix of hard-core, grind-core, death-metal and the groove element put into all those styles."

He said that grinding, grooving aspect is critical to the trio's group-think approach to songwriting.

Though Dying Fetus' music isn't about to be co-opted by anyone's political campaign, their mission is a lot less aggressive - and more cerebral - than their sonic assault.

"I guess you could say lyrically, social and politically, we comment on the world around us," Williams said. "We shed light on all the horrible stuff that occurs in society.

"We just want people to act responsibly, whatever that means. Act responsibly with the people around you. Friends, family, others in the community. Don't be a leach. Live your life. Don't live other peoples' lives for them."

"I don't know the whole back story," Williams said. "But it's a comment on our scene and band-name creation. Every band has a shock name to some degree in this scene. You've gotta keep trying for more unique, shocking names to stand out from the crowd."